Hi, I'm Matt. I'm a freelance Cameraman based near Brighton in the sometimes sunny South East of England and this is my blog.
It's going through a minor re-vamp at the mo, so bear with me..
This blog consists of work related posts, non-work related posts and posts that have very little relevance to anything...ever. Enjoy.

TubeStatusTubeStatus is a simple app that's pretty much Ronseal, gives you the (I'm presuming) current status of the various London Underground lines. Having just installed it a few minutes ago, I haven't tried it "in the wild" yet, but I will and we'll see how that goes. To be honest, I don't usually worry about "minor delays" and stuff, because of the pretty poor nature of the tube anyway, but it's possibly handy to know about any major problems before getting to the station, or even setting out on your journey.

What would be good to see is DLR info in there as well and at least a link to an online tube map if they're not allowed to include one (of course TFL could always buy him out and include a map then ;) I'm not gonna stop carrying my trusty paper tube map just yet, but it's a start maybe.

Now onto the WebApps.

Referring back to a previous (pre-iPhone) post, where I'd been looking at some WebApps to see what I'd potentially use, only one of those is currently bookmarked on my home screen.

Depth of Field Calc

Instead of having a circular piece of card or plastic that costs around £1m give or take, there's a handy little web app for doing something similar. You pick your camera, which should then give you the correct sensor size, then give your focal length and subject distance and the app calculates and displays your DoF. It's video only, not a problem for me as pretty much all of my work is on video at the moment, and despite having smaller cameras like the HVX200 and EX1, it's missing others that may be useful, such as the Sony DSR-450/570.

Again, I've not tried this out properly yet (will post when I do), but it's certainly an interesting app and I know a couple of people who've had it installed on their original iPhones.

Before I deleted PhoneSaber, I installed an update for it (no major changes), played about with it and randomly decided to tap on the info button. This displayed who it's by; TheMacBox with a "Tap here for more apps" button... so I did. It seems they've got some pretty good stuff going on!

UK Train Times

nationalrail.co.uk on the iPhone is a bitch! Okay so Safari gives you the 'real' web, but some sites are still a bitch to navigate with it, National Rail being one. So this app sounded really interesting.

It seems pretty good, great clean interface (although all these standard colours are getting a bit dull now, not this particular app's fault though), seems to work well, I'm guessing it queries the National Rail site and displays the results in a more iPhone friendly format.

Only complaint so far, can't select Arrival time, which is what I normally use.

Cinema Times

From the same guys comes Cinema Times, type in the film and area, or just the area, give a date and tap search and it returns, first the various cinemas around there, tap one to get the times, tap the film to get links to it's IMDb page, trailer if available, where else is showing it and the ability to mail the details to someone.

You can't book online, but it does give you the phone number for the cinema (which you can obviously call from your iPhone!) and a Google Maps link showing the location, although this is a web based Google Map link rather than invoking the iPhone's Maps app.

I think the last time I actually pre-booked tickets was for The Phantom Menace (and we all know how that turned out!), so the booking doesn't bother me, I'm liking the look of this for quickly finding out what's on though.

I know I've been crap with hyperlinking the various apps, but the UK Trains and Cinema apps are on TheMacBox's site and I've linked that above ;)

So part two (or as the observant have notices, part 'b' and technically part 3, but hey..) on iPhone apps that I've been trying/using. Previous post covered the ones that I'd tried and removed, now for the ones that are still on the iPhone, for now at least.

Twinkle (free)A location aware Twitter client, apparently Twitteriffic is location aware as well, but I couldn't find that in the version I had, plus I prefer the interface on Twinkle.

AIM (free)When Apple's push server is up, this will rule, as would any other IM client hopefully, and with any luck significantly reduce the amount of SMS texts I use each month. The interface isn't brilliant, but it does the job, haven't checked out the Online/Away/Offline side of things when you go back to the home screen yet tho, so not sure how good that is.

Cube Runner (free)Quite an addictive game, simply (uhuh) fly your craft through the blocks for as long as possible amassing points on the way, very simple premise, controlled with the phone's accelerometer, I haven't played it in about a week tho, so it may come off soon.(I have managed to get a higher score than 12 btw)

PhoneSaber (free)I tried to resist, I couldn't, this was one of the first apps i downloaded to the iPhone, it's great for showing off your new iPhone to all the people who haven't got one, but that's about it, the novelty wears off and I've shown it to pretty much all the people who's be impressed by PhoneSaber now, so it'll probably come off soon. Not yet though, just in case.

Tap Tap Revenge (free for now)Another game, yes, a good one though (although could do with some sort of better feedback when you tap), I'm not gonna bother to explain, it's a rhythm game, it's doing very well for itself and is definitely worth getting.

Facebook (free)The Facebook app is getting there, still needs a couple more features implemented, video of example, more detailed friend feeds, but it's pretty good for a "mobile" app, haven't tried the chat on it, but the Mobile Photos part is a very very good idea.

MySpace Mobile (free)MySpace is a bit of a has been now, true it's still pushing forwards with the music and stuff, but it's all about marketing now rather than a pure social thing, i've got the app anyway, as I'm still on there and I still use it.

Labyrinth Lite Edititon (free)Another addictive little game, simply one of those puzzles where you have to maneuver a ball bearing around a course, avoiding the various holes. Not impossible, but a couple of the courses took a few tries. I've got one left, not sure if I'll upgrade and pay for more, but it's worth investigating.

Pownce (free)I've got a Pownce account, but it hasn't seen much use yet. Transferred a couple of files, got Twhirl linked up to it, but it's still in early days yet, got the app tho cos I would like more use from it.

Remote (free)Finally buckled and downloaded this today. It's AWESOME, at the end of the day it's a simple principal, but the fact that, I'm downstairs typing this, my PowerMac (which had my iTunes library on it) is blasting away upstairs (listening via the staircase, oh for an Airport Express) and I can change tracks using my cocking PHONE is AWESOME!

Dizzy Bee (£1.79)Ok, finish up the post with the first app that I decided to pay for. Is it some uber-productivity app? Something camera or video related? No it's a cutesy little game featuring a bee who has to recuse fruit. Another accelerometer based game, with which you could easily tie yourself in a knot or dislocate something, you roll around resucing fruit, collecting flowers and dropping it all in a hole. As the levels go up, so baddies are introduced who squish your fruit and pop your bee. It's brilliant, especially for only £1.79!

So that's it for now, 5c will cover the web apps I've looked at and the ongoing adventure that is the iPhone 3g (?), the only other thing app related at the mo, is a complaint.

I don't have any stocks, I don't currently want to purchase any stocks so I sure as hell don't need a stupid Stocks app on my phone! Can I get rid of it? No, it seems I bloody well can't! (And no I don't want to Jailbreak my phone thanks), just to uncheck it in the settings somewhere or something.

Ok, Blogger's formatting restrictions are REALLY pissing me off. I JUST WANT AN IMAGE NEXT TO EACH ONE!! WHY IS THAT SO FUCKING HARD?!?!? Fine I'll put them below, FUCK YOU BLOGGER!

Okay and here.. we.. go. A rundown of the various apps I've have or have had on my iPhone 3G. I'll do this in two parts, starting with the apps I've tried and have removed.

ToDoThis little app by Erica Sadun, will be leaving my iPhone shortly, as a) I'm not using it and b) it takes like 3 taps to even get a ToDo up and running, may suit some. Not me though.

GoogleIt would probably be good, if it was actually quicker then me using Google in Safari and didn't have a nasty habit of rebooting my iPhone. You are the weakest link. Googbye. (see what I did there.)

Sim StaplerYou tap the stapler, it staples, every 10 is says something to you.Funny at first. Not any more.

JaredGod Awful! I don't even know what to say about it, it's terrible, a total waste of a download, despite all the "positive reviews"

TwitterifficI gave up using Twitteriffic on the desktop, favouring Twhirl, now I've switched on the iPhone as well, to Twinkle. Seems camps are split by these two, I like the loction based tweets in Twinkle, hated the Twitteriffic interface.

Ok that's those, next post the stuff that's still on there... for now MWAHAHAHA! :/